John Byrne

Background

John Byrne was born on October 13, 1825 in the small town of Kilkeel, County Down, Ireland. He was the son of Stephen Byrne, a successful merchant, and his wife Elizabeth Sloane.

Education

As a boy John Byrne received a classical education, partly under the tutorship of William Craig, a Moravian minister and classical and mathematical scholar. At seventeen he began the study of medicine at the Royal Institute at Belfast under the guidance of Dr. Daniel Murray, a prominent practitioner of that city. He continued his medical studies in Dublin, Glasgow, and finally Edinburgh, where he received his medical degree in 1846.

Career

Byrne's graduation from the University of Edinburgh being contemporaneous with one of the periods of famine and pestilence which scourged Ireland in the nineteenth century. He then received an appointment as medical officer to a fever hospital in his native town and at once showed his mettle.

In 1848 he left Ireland for the United States and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where he spent the remainder of his life. Five years later, feeling perhaps that an American degree would help him, he graduated from the New York Medical College.

In 1857 he was prominent in bringing about the merger between the German General Dispensary and the Long Island College Hospital. Later he was appointed a member of the executive board and he was for many years clinical professor of uterine surgery. He was also surgeon-in-chief to St. Mary's Hospital from 1858 to the year of his death. Byrne was always a student of physics and it was therefore natural that he should become interested in the application of this subject to surgery.

His chief claim to distinction lies in his ingenious adaptation of the electric cautery knife to the surgery of malignant disease of the uterus. His early researches were published in Clinical Notes on the Electric Cautery in Uterine Surgery (1872), in which he described in detail the instrument he had devised and the technique of its use.

His death occurred at Montreux, Switzerland.

Achievements

• John Byrne's main achievement was in publication in 1889 of a report in the Transactions of the American Gynecological Society, which covered the twenty years' experience in the treatment of uterine cancer by the cautery knife. This paper showed that his mortality rates were low and his final results good; in fact, better results were probably obtained by him than by any other method of treatment in the hands of other surgeons at that time. His knowledge of hospital routine and the more advanced sanitary methods of the day, his energy, and his executive ability resulted in a remarkable lowering of the mortality in the institution under his care.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Clinical Notes On The Electric Cautery In Uterine Surgery

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Clinical Notes On The Electric Cautery In Uterine Surgery Paperback 2011 (Author) Byrne John 1825-1902

Views

Byrne exemplified the value of training and interest in the sciences underlying medicine at a time when the importance of such training was not fully appreciated in this country.

Personality

His associate, Dr. MacEvett, describes him as of medium height, rather portly in build, with a florid complexion and prematurely gray hair and mustache; the stocky type so often associated with great physical energy and staying power.

Byrne's success was due to a sound general and medical education, an energetic disposition, an inquiring mind, and a capacity for hard work and attention to detail.

While his expression was serious he had a fund of kindliness and good nature, the saving grace of humor, and the gift of the raconteur.

Connections

Father:

Stephen Byrne

merchant mother Elizabeth Sloane

associate:

Dr. MacEvett

References

• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• The Physicians And Surgeons Of The United States